US national security adviser under pressure over Russia calls

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn&&num;8217&semi;s fate as one of President Donald Trump&&num;8217&semi;s senior aides is uncertain following reports that he discussed US sanctions with a Russian envoy before Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s inauguration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A top White House official sidestepped repeated chances on Sunday to publicly defend him&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The president&comma; who spent the weekend at his private club in Florida&comma; has yet to comment on Mr Flynn&&num;8217&semi;s status&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nor has Vice President Mike Pence&comma; who previously denied that Mr Flynn had discussed sanctions with Sergey Kislyak&comma; the Russian ambassador to the US&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Pence and Mr Flynn spoke twice on Friday&comma; according to an administration official&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump has told associates he is troubled by the situation&comma; but he has not said whether he plans to ask Mr Flynn to step down&comma; according to a person who spoke with him recently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Flynn was a loyal Trump supporter during the campaign&comma; but he is viewed sceptically by some in the administration&&num;8217&semi;s national security circles&comma; in part because of his ties to Russia&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stephen Miller&comma; Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s top policy adviser&comma; skirted the issue on several Sunday news shows&comma; saying it was not his place to weigh in on the &&num;8220&semi;sensitive matter&&num;8221&semi; or to say whether the president retains confidence in Mr Flynn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Several other White House officials did not respond on Sunday to questions about whether Mr Trump had confidence in his national security adviser&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Their silence appeared to reflect some uncertainty about the views of the president&comma; who is known to quickly change his mind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Friday&comma; The Washington Post reported that Mr Flynn addressed sanctions against Russia in a call with Mr Kislyak&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The report contradicted repeated denials from Trump officials&comma; including Mr Pence&comma; who vouched for Mr Flynn in a televised interview&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Flynn has since told administration officials that sanctions may have come up in the calls&comma; which coincided with the Obama administration slapping penalties on Russia for election-related hacking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>New Jersey governor Chris Christie&comma; who led Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s transition planning before the election&comma; said Mr Flynn would have to explain his conflicting statements about his conversations with Mr Kislyak to Mr Trump and Mr Pence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;General Flynn has said up to this point that he had not said anything like that to the Russian ambassador&period; I think now he&&num;8217&semi;s saying that he doesn&&num;8217&semi;t remember whether he did or not&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Christie said on CNN&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;So&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s a conversation he is going to need to have with the president and the vice president to clear that up&comma; so that the White House can make sure that they are completely accurate about what went on&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controversy surrounding Mr Flynn comes as the young administration grapples with a series of national security challenges&comma; including North Korea&&num;8217&semi;s reported ballistic missile launch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The president&comma; who was joined at his Mar-a-Lago estate by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the weekend&comma; voiced solidarity with Japan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and later in the week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The White House is also dealing with fallout from the rocky rollout of Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s immigration executive order&comma; which has been blocked by the courts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The order was intended to suspend the nation&&num;8217&semi;s refugee programme and bar citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Advocacy groups contend the government has rounded up large numbers of people as part of stepped-up enforcement&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The agency says the effort is no different from enforcement actions carried out in the past&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e26f0707aec">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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